The West Coast Avengers were created in 1984 as a spin-off of the regular Avengers book. It was an idea by the new Avengers chairman, the Vision. Veteran Avenger Hawkeye was placed as the new team leader and tasked with recruiting members for this second branch of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Given that many former Avengers had relocated to the west coast, recruiting a team became something easier than expected. Wonder Man, Tigra, Iron Man James Rhodes, and Hawkeye's wife Mockingbird rounded out the team. The roster would change over the years and members would come and go. Many important developments would occur in the team, still being reflected today, in the comics and the MCU.
10 It Was Part Of Vision's Plan To Take Over The World
The Vision had been shut down by Annihilus. Starfox used the world computer of Titan to help repair him. This activated a "control crystal" in the Vision's synthetic brain to corrupt his personality.
Vision set about taking over the Avengers to prepare and take over Earth's computer systems. Part of this scheme was putting Avengers teams across the country. He even tried to get Doc Sampson to start a team in the Midwest.
9 Their Headquarters Became Avengers Academy
The West Coast Avengers made their base on a sprawling compound adjacent to Los Angeles. When the team disbanded the compound went unused. However, being available following the events of "Fear Itself," Hank Pym repurposes the compound to house the Avengers Academy where young heroes are trained.
It was in this location that the students interacted with a lot of the Marvel Universe at large. Their instructors included Pym, Tigra, and many other former Avengers. Some of those instructors had lived at the Compound as part of the West Coast Avengers.
8 Time Travel Nearly Tore The Team Apart
Early in their existence, the West Coast Avengers found themselves stranded in the past by Kang the Conqueror. Mockingbird found herself in the old west where she was drugged and held captive by the Phantom Rider. After being assaulted by Phantom Rider, she confronted him and watched him fall from a cliff to his death.
The Phantom Rider possessed his descendant, the new Phantom Rider, and tormented Mockingbird. He then drove a wedge between Mockingbird and Hawkeye with lies about the death of the original Phantom Rider. The team splintered between the two heroes.
7 John Walker Was Made The Team's Leader By The Government
After the Vision was dismantled by an international agency, the US Government decided that it needed to better control the West Coast Avengers. To do this, Hawkeye was removed as team leader and a new leader arrived early in the morning. It was John Walker, the former Captain America, now going by the name USAgent.
Walker worked himself into the framework of the team, albeit using a heavy-handed approach initially. His entrance prompted Hawkeye to immediately leave. Shortly afterward, Captain America integrated the West Coast team fully into the Avengers as a whole, prompting more reshuffling of the roster. Walker was still with the team as it left the Avengers and became Force Works.
6 Captain America Fully Integrated Them Into The Avengers
With the 300th issue of Avengers, Captain America reformed the Avengers, quickly returning them to the ranks of "Earth's Mightiest Heroes." When John Byrne took over writing the series, he had Captain America drastically restructuring the team away from the federal government's six-member structure. His idea was to assemble every hero that had ever been an Avenger.
Essentially, anyone that had been an Avenger was an Avenger, available to be called in if needed. This made the event crossover Acts of Vengeance possible to span across the two titles. This also made it possible to take the Vision out of the West Coast team and further traumatize the Scarlet Witch.
5 The Team Inspired The Great Lakes Avengers
After quitting the West Coast Avengers, Hawkeye and Mockingbird discovered that a group of heroes in Milwaukee was calling themselves the "Great Lakes Avengers." The name kept a coastal theme going, but made use of the country's closest thing to the north coast. The duo stayed in Milwaukee to train the new heroes.
The inspiration the almost farcical heroes cited for their team was the West Coast team. As mentioned, the Vision had thought about a Midwest branch of the Avengers, but never pursued it, presumably because of a lack of available heroes in the area. Hawkeye saw the Great Lakes Avengers as they were, heroes banding together for the right reasons.
4 The Title Of Their Series Changed
During John Byrne's notable run in the 1980s, the title changed to Avengers West Coast. It made sense when John Byrne took over as writer of the main Avengers book as well. It has been speculated that the reason came because sales were ebbing and flowing between the two titles, and the name change allowed retailers to put the comics out side-by-side wherever they put out alphabetically.
It did allow for a better flow during the time that the titles crossed over during Acts of Vengeance. That event ended in Avengers West Coast #55 in a comic that featured a group of heroes that was weighted more to the East Coast. This followed Captain America and She-Hulk guest-starring in Avengers West Coast #48 and #49. When Byrne left, this type of flowing crossover ended as well.
3 They Had The First Latinx Avengers
Being based in Southern California, it was slightly disappointing to see the original roster composed of former East Coast Avengers. When the team got their regular series, the roster changed and readers saw a drive to switch up the membership. The first two candidates were the Thing and Firebird who were "unofficial" Avengers. Firebird was significant because she was a Latina character who always appeared in her role as a devoutly religious hero.
Later the team got their first official Latino member in Miguel Santos, who took the name Living Lightning. He was extremely powerful but left the team to pursue a college education. He was notable for avoiding the tropes of his race defining his character.
2 They Became Force Works
The West Coast Avengers were eventually disbanded by Captain America. Iron Man took many of the former members and set them up as a new team called Force Works. On their very first adventure, they lost Wonder Man, which unhinged the Scarlet Witch even further. Despite that, she was the de facto leader, but she was regularly overruled by Iron Man.
The team was not helped in the real world by the ongoing collapse of the comics industry in the 1990s. They also were canceled as part of the Crossing, where Iron Man was revealed to an agent of Kang. To the team's credit, they were adapted to be part of the first Iron Man animated series.
1 There Was A West Coast Avengers Reality Show
In 2018, both Hawkeyes formed a new team of West Coast Avengers. Among the recruits for this new team was Kid Omega, who invited himself along. His reasons for this was a reality show he'd signed a contract to do following him and his team. He did this before having a team.
The reality show helped fund the team, which gave them a reason to begrudgingly accept the project. Kid Omega also proved difficult, but when a member is responsible for paying the bills, a lot is overlooked. By the end of the series, the team had accepted the situation but it's unknown what happened.
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